Announcement European Challenge Cup 2016

Last year the European Challenge Cup was an International Special Premier Event visited by 435 players from 18 European countries, Brazil and USA.

Location
This tournament will be held on Saturday 20 February (Swiss rounds) and Sunday 21 February 2016 (finals) at Sportcentrum Valkenhuizen, Beukenlaan 15, NL-6823 JM Arnhem, The Netherlands.

*The venue is just a couple of kilometres from the German border, it's trainstation one of the major stops of international trains coming from the Airports of Cologne (Köln - Germany) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands). There is a public tribune where family and nonplaying friends can watch the games from reasonable distance. A catering service is present at the location. The venue is easily to reach with public transport from the Central Station, where also most of the hotels are located. There are enough possibilities for parking cars in the vicinity of the venue. No food or drinks allowed in the playing area, at the tribunes only drinks in plastic cups.

The tournament starts at 10.00 am, but the registration at the venue opens at 08.00 am (till 09.30 am).
A total of nearly 900 participants can be accommodated at most.

The size of the divisions are dependent on the number of players. The tournament is open to participants from all over the world.

Tournament structure
Participants play with their own decks in the Standard format.
That means that the use of cards is limited to certain series. Prior to the tournament, during the player meeting, one has to hand over a decklist and during the tournaments there will be deck checks.
Cards present in the series mentioned below are allowed:

XY XY

XY Flashfire

XY Furious Fists

XY Phantom Forces

XY Primal Clash

XY Roaring Skies

XY Ancient Origins

XY BREAKthrough

Double Crisis

XY Trainer Kit

XY Trainer Kit - Bisharp & Wigglytuff

XY Trainer Kit - Latias & Latios

XY Kalos Starter Set

PR promo's XY01+

MCD McDonald Collection 2014

BEWARE: The cards of XY BREAKpoint become tournament legal at 24 February 2016!

Participants are divided into 3 divisions, dependent on the year of birth. These divisions are:
Junior division: born in 2005 or later;
Senior division: born in 2001, 2002, 2003 or 2004;
Masters division: born in 2000 or earlier.

The tournament will be using double swiss (More information about "double swiss"(click here)). Saturday swiss rounds will be played, with best-of-3 in rounds of 50 minutes + 3 turns. During this part of the tournament each pairing is made randomly by the Tournament Operations Manager program, the results of the competitors will influence the pairings of the next round. The outcome of a match of each player is of importance to one’s rating and thus helps players to earn an invite for the World Championships. The European Challenge Cup 2015 is intended as a higher qualifying tournament and winners will earn Championship points equal to a National Championship and the results will be used for calculated your rating. Subsequently the winner receives enough points to qualify his/her participation for the World Championships 2016 at San Francisco, California, USA. Sunday, depending on the number of participants per division, swiss will be played also with best-of-3 in rounds of 50 mintes + 3 turns (max. 32 players). This will result in a max. Top-cut 8 that will play best-of-3 in rounds of 75 minutes + 3 turns

Don’t forget when you participate in this tournament
Take care that you have your PlayerID at hand;
Read the tournament rules, so you know what to bring to this event;
Have your decklist form (see left under the "Registration › decklist” button) filled in completely prior to the tournament;
Have your cards at the same follow order as you decklist for deckcheck;
Be at the venue on time, as those that arrive too late will receive a “round loss”.